Well, that’s sort of a rhetorical question really. By now, reports of successful tetherings of an iPhone running the developer release of iPhone OS 3.0 have blanketed the blogosphere. It certainly isn’t without caveats, but then it IS a developer preview of unreleased software.
On Tuesday, March 16th, Apple’s held it’s latest press release party to show off the iPhone’s next OS to media and developers. Scott Forstall stated, in response to media questions about when Apple was bringing tethering to the iPhone, “We’re absolutely supporting tethering in the client side in iPhone 3.0, but we’re working with carriers around the world to see when they can add tethering support on their networks. But we are building that support into iPhone 3.0.”. While no demonstration of this capability was given, the ravenous developer community began looking for hints within the software’s SDK that tethering was in the works.
Not only did they find clues, but apparently fully working components and system controls to manage a tethered connection through the iPhone. The software in the 3.0 firmware will allow connection to be be made using a USB or Bluetooth connection to a computer. Now that we know that the software is there, now we just have to wait for word from AT&T to see how much they are going to bilk charge us for the privilege. Odds favor it will cost around $30 per month like their other tethering plans for other phones. Maybe Apple will go to bat for iPhone users to get the price lowered.
What do you think about tethering and what would you pay? Let us know in the forums.

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We asked for your opinions on Apple’s major iPhone OS 3.0 announcement on Tuesday and we got them.
So, here are your opinions in their pure, raw, unedited form brought to you by the PowerPage Server Hamster:

After having moved to the IPhone from the Blackberry, I’ve been astounded at the short battery life I now have. I can’t finish the day without having to plug the little bugger in. I know all the usual reasons (3G, Wifi etc…). What I’m looking for is a firmware update or something that will prolong the IPhone’s life. All those new bells and whistles, while welcome, will further drain the device and make it even more frustrating for road warriors.
Best, André

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Late Sunday, Elgato Systems released version 3.1.1 of its EyeTV software application, which finds and tracks all television programming you want to see and allows users to pause live television and save content to file.
The new version, which can be found here (and can also be found through EyeTV 3.0′s update feature), adds the following fixes and features:

A problem where EyeTV would require increasing amounts of memory while playing back live television has been resolved.

Exporting a recording to elementary streams now preserves the native audio format.

Resolved an issue in 10.4.11 that would cause EyeTV to hang when creating a manual schedule.

Fixed a crash that occurred when teletext was toggled on and off.

Improved USB performance of EyeTV Hybrid US 2009 after starting up the Macintosh.

The Freebox live TV window no longer opens by itself every 10 minutes when using Freebox in Wi-Fi mode.

EyeTV 3.1.1 requires Mac OS X 10.4 or later to install and run.
The program retails for US$79.95.
If you’ve tried the new version and have any feedback about it, let us know in the comments or forums.

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Late Tuesday, Carbon Copy Cloner, the shareware favorite for drive cloning operations by Mike Bombich, has released version 3.2 of the program. The new version, a 2.8 megabyte download, adds the following changes:

Prior to version 3, CCC would not delete items at the root level of the target volume if those items were not present on the source volume. This was a convenient feature, but due to some fairly significant underlying changes in CCC 3, that feature was not brought forward. This feature is now available again in version 3.2 and later via the “Protect root-level items on the target” option. See the documentation for more details on the implementation of this feature.

Implemented filters support for remote source volumes.

CCC no longer disables non-HFS formatted volumes in the source and target lists. Rather, selecting these non-supported filesystems as a source or target will produce a helpful dialog box indicating how to proceed with those volumes.

The description of what will happen during a “Backup everything” task has been updated to more accurately reflect what actually occurs.

CCC now correctly reports on the bootability of mirrored volumes on PowerPC systems.

Resolved a few minor issues with cropped text in non-English localizations.

CCC will now report IO errors via a dialog box every time they are encountered. Previously, non-IO related errors encountered after IO errors would take precedence, and IO errors would only be reported in the CCC log.

Addressed an issue in which CCC would fail with a generic error when running out of space for temporary files on the target volume.

Included an updated version of rsync 3.0.5.

Resolved an issue in which locked folders caused synchronization errors in rare circumstances.

Resolved an issue in which CCC would prompt the user to run a scheduled task (with a remote Macintosh as the target) when the network connection was re-established even if the task had been explicitly deferred.

CCC now creates its own key pair for ssh communication with other Macs on your network, rather than using any pre-existing key pairs.

CCC now mounts disk images at custom mount points in /tmp rather than in the default location of /Volumes.

Resolved an issue in which disk images could not be created on AFP or SMB network shares.

Resolved an issue in which the failure of certain built-in tasks would indicate that there was an error with a preflight script.

Several updates to the documentation: Expanded on the Tips section, added extensive coverage of the new “Protect root-level items on the target” feature, updated instructions on restoring from a disk image, minor updates to the “Backing up to a remote Macintosh” section (plus a large addition on backing up multiple Macs to a single “server”), and added several items to the FAQ section.

Carbon Copy Cloner 3.2 retails for a US$10 shareware registration fee. The application requires Mac OS X 10.4 or later to run.
If you’ve tried the new version and have either positive or negative feedback, let us know in the comments or forums.

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Episode 109 of the PowerPage Podcast is now available. You can either download it from the iTunes Store or directly (1’25:06, 34.4 MB, MP3).Your panel: Jason O’Grady, Rob Parker, Youngmoo Kim, and Tom Hesser.Topics include: This week we discuss iPhone OS 3.0 and we play “What’s on your Mac?”What’s on your Mac?:

Subscribe to the PowerPage Podcast directly in iTunes or add the Podcast RSS feed to the newsreader of your choice.
PowerPage Podcast theme music is generously provided by The Tragically Hip. Pick up their new release “We Are The Same” on iTunes.
Don’t forget to add the PowerPage Facebook group!

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Apple basically walloped its user base over the head with what’s coming this summer via its iPhone OS 3.0 upgrade, which appears to answer a lot of questions as to where specific features (such as turn-by-turn GPS directions, improved e-mail, Spotlight, landscape view across additional applications and the oft-cited copy and paste features) were.
Even so, other features had yet to be mentioned, the biggest hole still remaining a lack of Flash support as Apple and Adobe attempt to sort this mess out.
So, we’d like to know what you make of the situation and what to expect. What are you looking forward to? What did Apple miss? Will you snag the 3.0 update the second it hits or wait for fixes? Did Apple include the features you wanted to see on your iPhone?
Since the PowerPage Server Hamster is being finicky today, let us know what you think by shooting me an e-mail and I’ll have everyone’s opinions, for good or ill, up by tomorrow.
As always, let us know what you think in the comments or forums.

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With the iPhone OS 3.0 update announcement taking place yesterday, a picture’s worth a thousand words.
Fortunately, Apple just posted the full presentation on its web site over at this address.
Users will have to wait until this summer to get their hands on the full release and new features such as additional APIs for programmers, improved GPS, copy and paste and the rest.
If you have a couple cents to hurl in on this, let us know in the comments or forums.

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Late Tuesday, Apple released its Mini DisplayPort to VGA 1.0 firmware update, an 11.4 megabyte download which addresses intermittent flickering and compatibility issues such as no video on some external displays when using the Mini DisplayPort to VGA Adapter on your Mini DisplayPort-enabled Mac.
Once downloaded, the firmware update will be installed into the “Utilities” folder and will automatically launch to update the firmware on the Mini DisplayPort to VGA Adapter.
The Mini DisplayPort to VGA Adapter must be plugged into your Mac and a compatible VGA display. The Mac power adapter must be plugged into a power outlet.
The updater is also available through Mac OS X’s built-in Software Update feature, provided you have qualifying hardware that uses a Mini DisplayPort.
The updater requires Mac OS X 10.5 or later to install and run.
If you’ve tried the firmware update and have any feedback to offer, please let us know in the comments or forums.

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Apple held its long-awaited iPhone OS 3.0 announcement today in front of a crowd of developers and invited media. The announcement mentioned prominent new changes including the addition of push notification, which Apple stated as requiring an overhaul of its servers to accommodate. Upon delivery, push notification can deliver signals such as sounds and text alerts to Apple, which can then push the data to the iPhones.
According to MacNN, Apple has also expanded the business models offered by the App Store and, allowing users to purchase additional content within an application provided that users have already signed in via their iTunes account. From here, users can purchase items such as books, regional content or extra game levels.
Apple then cited that the inclusion of approximately 1,000 new APIs (Application Programming Interfaces) will grant developers access to features such as iPod libraries, embedded e-mail, audio/video streaming and Google Maps integration. Core Location should also enable turn-by-turn navigation, allowing practical driving applications.
Company representatives also stated that iPhone OS 3.0 will support all standard Bluetooth protocols, including Bonjour, allowing iPhones to be able to use features such as automatic device detection as well as peer-to-peer gaming sessions that would locate possible opponents to play against within a given area. Third-party sccessory makers have also been given direct hardware control with the new firmware, permitting functions such as tuning an FM transmitter from the iPhone interface.
Click the jump for the full story…

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As nifty as Time Machine is, a number of users seem to be running into problems where the “Change Disk…” option for Time Machine is nonfunctional.
Over on the Apple Discussion Board, user Joel_H offered the following description of the issue:

“(After switching TM disks) I realized there were still things on my time capsule backup that were no longer on my G-Raid2, so I switched drives in Time Machine and restored what I needed. I then tried to switch back, and the “Change Disk…” button is depressing but not responding.”

According to MacFixIt, users encountering this issue may have first tried changing their Time Machine setup for Time Capsule devices (i.e.: from Wireless to Wired connectivity), but a few people have noticed this may happen if the Time Machine backup volume has its name changed. One workaround users have tried, which has met with some success, is deleting the Time Machine preferences and then reselecting the drive. This seems to only be a temporary fix and the problem returns after a period of time.
The issue appears to be related to Apple’s MobileMe services and tends to rear its ugly head when the Back to My Mac option is enabled. Console error messages for this problem indicate a potential conflict with Bonjour networking, which Back To My Mac uses. For now, the available workaround for this problem is to turn off Back To My Mac.
Other workarounds include the following steps:

1. Turn off Back To My Mac.
To turn off Back To My Mac, click the “stop” button in the “Back To My Mac” section of the MobileMe system preferences. This should enable the “Choose Disk” button in the Time Machine setup again.
2. Remove Back To My Mac preferences.
This problem could be from corruption in the “Back To My Mac” preference files. As such, removing the Back To My Mac preferences may also help. The preference file is called “com.apple.BackToMyMac.plist,” and is located in the /Macintosh HD/Library/Preferences folder.

Stay tuned for additional information as it becomes available and if you’ve seen this issue on your end, please let us know in the comments or forums.